My Philosophy
“Liberation is always in part a storytelling process: breaking stories, breaking silences, making new stories. A free person tells her own story. A valued person lives in a society in which her story has a place.”
The two central beliefs that guide my work as a therapist are that all people are capable of thriving and having meaningful, authentic relationships, and that the primary way that we understand ourselves, each other, and the world we live in is through story. Often, people come to therapy with a story about themselves, under the influence of dominant culture narratives about what is “normal”, “good” or “worthy”, that does not reflect the fullness of their humanity. So my work as a therapist is not about helping people change themselves, but about collaborating with my clients to help them re-author their narratives so that they reflect and honor their multi-storied selves, as well as their innate worthiness, purpose, belonging, uniqueness, and power.
In working with me, you can expect a collaborative approach where I treat you as the expert on your own lived experience. I integrate a deep respect for and curiosity about your story, in all of its complexity, with an engagement of the imagination to envision new possibilities through dialogue and creative processes such as art-making and writing, an attention and tending to the body’s wisdom through somatic and mindfulness-based approaches, and an abiding sense of humor.
In my work as a therapist and my daily life, I strive to be anti-racist and decolonizing, which means holding a commitment to deep self-reflection, understanding and deconstructing the ways I have been conditioned to uphold white supremacy, and actively working to de-center whiteness as the default world view. I am LGBTQ+ affirming and welcome people to my practice of all sexualities and gender expressions.